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Blogs on how to make your children fall in love with reading. Plus advice and blog ramblings of children's author illustrator Karen Emma Hall.

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Sunday, 13 July 2014

Happy childhood memories to bring inspiration

Every person’s childhood has happy and sad memories, and we can use them to draw inspiration from. Childhood years are considered to be the most important time in a person’s life because it is during this time that we learn the important lessons in life. These are the years that form a person’s character. Your love of literature life will have been formed during your childhood. Almost all first times in life happen during childhood. These memories, whether happy or sad, present lots of thoughts and perspectives that can inspire you and get your creativity flowing.

So in times when you are looking for inspiration, become that child you once were and play in your head as you would when you were that age. Go back in your mind to your inner child find experiences that you can write about. Go reminisce about your childhood and be inspired in your writing or creative art.

I have loved reading for as long as I can remember. As a kid, I loved going to the library with my grandparents and picking out many books to read. My grandparents loved the weekly trips to the library and this is what stays in my memory and lives on. This pure pleasure memory of books and weekly visits to my grandparents. One memory evokes the other.
Once at the library, the hard bit was picking just a few books when there was so many to choose from, then leaving the library.
I'm really glad that my grandparents unlocked that world for me though. There's just something about losing yourself in a good story and getting caught up in the narrative of someone else's life or imagination. To this day, one of my favorite things to do is curl up on the couch with my cuppa in one hand and a book in the other. A perfect little spot for books and reading and exploring those stories together is on their grandparents laps, as well as parents laps. A very good place to start being a reader.

I have many memories of summertime as a child. Whether it was excited day trips when we pretended to be abroad on holiday, or camping out in the back garden and again pretending we were on holiday. Getting into a state of excitement when cousins from down south came up to visit, and mimicking accents.
It was also so good to relive the days when we would go down the the coast (we were lucky it was only a 15 minute drive to the coast of Tynemouth and Whitley Bay) with the huge inner tube tyre in the back of my dads van, when half the street would ask to go down, and all manage to cram into the back of the van along with that huge rubber inner tyre....
Or lying on a picnic blanket, on the hill, looking down at the town, reading a book and listening to Abba, Motown,or Blondie.
But one memory I will never forget, is my Mum reading to me as a young child. Every day she would sit in the same chair and I would jump in next to her and share a book or two.

When you have a child or children, how quickly does each day go? You wish you could go back and relive each loving moment or memory over again.
You have nurtured them, tended to their basic needs, read bedtime stories, made-up stories, and try to fit into their tiny world.
You listen to them, kiss them goodnight and tell them you love them and loving the wonder they are. All of their cute funny ways, and laugh at the new words they have make up. Words that have not been invented until that moment.

Sometimes you might have to have a day a week without your child, or more. When this happens you stop becoming complacent and you miss them.
Soon the days go quicker, and before you know it, the time has really run away with itself. They have had their first day at school, their first wobbly tooth, the seventh wobbly tooth. The tooth fairy has been and gone countless times. Until the day comes when they say they don't believe in the tooth fairy or Santa Claus.

Then comes the day when they are having a leavers assembly at school. How proud you are when you see them recite a part they have learned. Learned for you.
They look up to you for reassurance they are doing well.
I love it all and I can't get it back. Not even a day.
The years race on.

So the next time you go to read a bedtime story, or a book together, think on. Enjoy it together. Treasure each moment. There is nothing quite as wonderful than that share. You can keep that for infinity.

Enjoy each moment together with your child/children.

When book reading grows it can develop and if you are determined to pursue your dream you may one day decide to publish your own book.

Here is my book for children and I do believe grandparents and parents are the ones who give you the want and the love to pursue a passion in books. Childrens book by Karen Emma Hall